The change in the automotive segment has reached a level that will be noticed by anyone more or less interested in the segment. While all car manufacturers, even non-car manufacturers, are focusing on electric cars, there is also new news about autonomous driving, which is another topic that keeps the agenda busy.
For autonomous driving, there are now no Level 5 autonomous technologies, where vehicles can perform flawlessly on their own. Moreover, neither the legal regulations nor the ethical discussions on the subject have been completed, but the issue of how to sell autonomous driving features is about to become clear.
Autonomous driving available by subscription
In-car features also change with time. When you previously selected the equipment package of your vehicle, those features would now be fixed. New cars can use the subscription system. This idea is not really new, for example Audi already offers various subscription systems.
Cariad CEO Dirk Hilgenberg tells Bloomberg that this idea can be applied to technologies such as autonomous driving. According to Hilgenberg, a fundamentally new business model has been used and supports this approach. According to him, if you want the vehicle to continue autonomously, for example, for 100 kilometers in the future, you will be able to do this with a subscription system.
Although Volkswagen does not now offer Level 4 autonomous driving technology in its cars, according to Hilgenberg, the subscription system will give drivers a chance to switch to autonomous driving whenever they feel like it. Thus, drivers will be able to rest or sleep during autonomous driving.
Currently, Tesla offers a fully autonomous driving subscription. This service is available for $199 per month. Volkswagen’s model, on the other hand, may be advantageous for people who will be interval or time-based and will not always use the feature. On the other hand, according to experts, Hilgenberg’s idea of harmony behind the wheel is not very likely for now, fully autonomous vehicles will also be used primarily in public transportation in the short term.